Isaiah 51

Isaiah 51:1-23 . ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE FAITHFUL REMNANT OF ISRAEL TO TRUST IN GOD FOR DELIVERANCE, BOTH FROM THEIR LONG BABYLONIAN EXILE, AND FROM THEIR PRESENT DISPERSION.

1. me--the God of your fathers.
ye . . . follow after righteousness--the godly portion of the nation; Isaiah 51:7 shows this ( Proverbs 15:9 , 1 Timothy 6:11 ). "Ye follow righteousness," seek it therefore from Me, who "bring it near," and that a righteousness "not about to be abolished" ( Isaiah 51:6 Isaiah 51:7 ); look to Abraham, your father ( Isaiah 51:2 ), as a sample of how righteousness before Me is to be obtained; I, the same God who blessed him, will bless you at last ( Isaiah 51:3 ); therefore trust in Me, and fear not man's opposition ( Isaiah 51:7 Isaiah 51:8 Isaiah 51:12 Isaiah 51:13 ). The mistake of the Jews, heretofore, has been, not in that they "followed after righteousness," but in that they followed it "by the works of the law," instead of "by faith," as Abraham did ( Romans 9:31 Romans 9:32 , Romans 10:3 Romans 10:4 , 4:2-5 ).
hole of . . . pit--The idea is not, as it is often quoted, the inculcation of humility, by reminding men of the fallen state from which they have been taken, but that as Abraham, the quarry, as it were (compare Isaiah 48:1 ), whence their nation was hewn, had been called out of a strange land to the inheritance of Canaan, and blessed by God, the same God is able to deliver and restore them also (compare Matthew 3:9 ).

2. alone--translate, "I called him when he was but one" ( Ezekiel 33:24 ). The argument is: the same God who had so blessed "one" individual, as to become a mighty nation ( Genesis 12:1 , 22:7 ), can also increase and bless the small remnant of Israel, both that left in the Babylonish captivity, and that left in the present and latter days ( Zechariah 14:2 ); "the residue" ( Isaiah 13:8 Isaiah 13:9 ).

3. For--See for the argument,
the garden of the Lord--restoration of the primeval paradise ( Genesis 2:8 , Ezekiel 28:13 , Revelation 2:7 ).
melody--Hebrew, "psalm." God's praises shall again be heard.

4. my people--the Jews. This reading is better than that of GESENIUS: "O peoples . . . nations," namely, the Gentiles. The Jews are called on to hear and rejoice in the extension of the true religion to the nations; for, at the first preaching of the Gospel, as in the final age to come, it was from Jerusalem that the gospel law was, and is, to go forth ( Isaiah 2:3 ).
law . . . judgment--the gospel dispensation and institutions ( Isaiah 42:1 , "judgment").
make . . . to rest--establish firmly; found.
light, &c.--( Isaiah 42:6 ).